emergentfutures:

Blended Learning with Khan Put to the Test

There are at least two explorations happening this summer that are examining blended learning with the Khan Academy in math classes. One is with middle school students in the Los Altos School District in California. The other is in the Envision Academy in Oakland, California

Full Story: JackCWest

Yes! This is definitely a step forward for education.

Accidental Omission

Me thinks not!

Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss

During my regular participation on a new forum: Ironwolf Forum
I read and responded to so many believers that refuse to even attempt a rational discussion of science that I often feel the debate is pointless.

Finding this conversation with Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss shed some new light into my world. These gentlemen have probably already forgotten more than I will ever know when it comes to presenting science so eloquently.

(A bit lengthy, but well worth every minute.)

Part I



Part II



Part III



Part IV



Part V



Part VI



Part VII



Part VIII

Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss Discussion Part 8


Part IX



Part X



Part XI



Part XII

Opening the door…

Many of the atheists I have held dialogs with agree that the only way to help open the door to rationality and logical thinking is through education. I agree whole heartedly. This series is a fabulous work of educational art.


“The Age of the Earth” (parts 1 - 6)
atheistnation.net.

Part1

7:01 minutes runtime



Part2

7:50 minutes runtime



Part3

8:50 minutes runtime



Part4

9:00 minutes runtime



Part5

6:52 minute runtime



Part6

6:42 minutes runtime

Some thoughts

I have recently attended two or three Cyber gatherings in the on-line 3D virtual world of Second Life.

(This is my avatar prescence in SL)




I am a member of several groups in SL (an initialism utilized a great deal by most anyone that has ever experienced SL for any length of time). Two of the groups I am associated with are SL Humanism currently with 266 members, and Atheists United enrolling 462 members (as of this post). SL Humanism has weekly meetings held in Roma, a dedicated public meeting space with exceptionally nice Cyber surroundings, and a veritable cornucopia of information on Humanism. The United Atheists group is still attempting to organize a regular meeting time and place to date.

During the meetings I was able to attend, most of the discussion involved how to get more people to listen to rationality in general. It was widely accepted by both groups that the majority of people are just simply not well educated. As I listened to the discussion I began to think about all the conversations I have had with, shall we say, people of the faith. This is not to say that all believers are uneducated only that a large part of them seem to be. Or perhaps they just suffer from temporary loss of rational faculties when making the leap into this kind of discussion.

In every conversation I’ve ever had, I run up against people that will fight until they are literally blue in the face trying to prove to you that you are wrong and there “is” a God. Yet, in the course of the conversation the debate becomes null because everything they are using as proof has already been decidedly proven to an be an allegory. When a rational person begins to point out the holes in their arguments and the source of the same, the conversation degrades to something along the lines of a threat on your immortal soul. I am sorry but that does not seem to be a very educated or informed approach to any subject, be it Humanism or Atheism.

This thought was born from a recently posted comment on a blog I regularly watch. You can check it out for yourself on the lower half of my page under Ironwolf. The comment posted to an earlier entry from Ironwolf regarding the “Blasphemy Challenge”. Just read it for yourself. Either this commenter is very bad at typing, or they really need a bit more education. Without knowing them personally I can not make a valid assumption, but I can wager it seems very likely the commenter could use a bit more education.

Hope for tomorrow

When I found this earlier today, I was so uplifted and hopeful for our children’s’ educational futures. Being from the deep southern states of our great nation, and often feeling as if I might suffocate in the midst of the Bible belt, I was exceptionally excited to find this wonderful resource at the National Center for Science Education web-site.

A quote from the NCSE home page:

Welcome!
The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) defends the teaching of evolution in public schools. We are a nationally-recognized clearinghouse for information and advice to keep evolution in the science classroom and “scientific creationism” out. NCSE is the only national organization to specialize in this issue. We provide:

* Reviews of current anti-evolution activity in the United States and around the world
* Background to the fundamentally creationist and anti-evolution movement known as “Intelligent Design”
* Detailed information on the Creation/Evolution controversy from 1859 to the present
* Resources for parents, teachers, school boards, and the general public

Contact NCSE if you need advice, information, or help in defending the teaching of evolution. We also work to increase public understanding of evolution and of the nature of scientific knowledge.


I stumbled onto the NCSE site from a link found on a fairly recent Point of Inquiry podcast information page regarding an interview with Barbara Forrest, a philosopher and public intellectual at Southeastern Louisiana University. She is a true modern day hero in my book.